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US apologises for Guatemala STD experiments

US president Barack Obama has personally apologised to Guatemala for a US government experiment conducted more than 60 years ago.

Between 1946 and 1948 American scientists deliberately infected nearly 700 Guatemalan prisoners and mentally ill patients with syphilis to test the effectiveness of penicillin in preventing sexually transmitted diseases.

The prisoners and patients never gave their consent. Many were given inadequate treatment, and the study was abandoned because it did not provide any useful information.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has released a statement condemning the vaccine research as unethical and reprehensible.

She says the US deeply regrets what happened and apologises to the individuals affected.

Guatemalan president Alvaro Colom has accused the US of crimes against humanity.

He says that during a phone call with Mr Obama, the two countries agreed to set up a bilateral commission to investigate what happened.

"There are some things that we have to find out - the disposition of those who were involved; the patients who were involved in this research between 1946 and 1948 - quite honestly do not know how many are still alive," US state department spokesman PJ Crowley said.

"We will determine the facts as best we can and then those will inform whatever follow up steps are appropriate."

What is known so far is that US scientists infected nearly 700 Guatemalan prisoners and psychiatric patients with syphilis and gonorrhoea using prostitutes with the disease.

None of the infected patients gave their consent.

The researchers deceived them about the experiment and concealed the facts of their infection.

The research was conducted by the US public health service to study treatment and inoculations against sexually transmitted disease.

They wanted to see if penicillin could prevent syphilis, not just cure it.

The study was never made public and was only discovered recently during research by Susan Reverby, a professor of women's and gender studies at Wesley College in Massachusetts.

She found that the man who led the Guatemalan study, Dr John Cutler, also took part in the infamous Tuskegee experiment.

In that case the public health service conducted a study of syphilis from 1932 to 1972 on black men in Alabama.

The nearly 400 test subjects were not told they had syphilis or given adequate treatment.